Annotated Bibliography #1

Date: February 16, 2010
From: April Bomprezzi (abomprezzi1010@gmail.com)
To: Wendy Sumner-Winter
Annotated Bib #1: Website - http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/355/15/1517
Title: Body of Research – Ownership and Use of Human Tissue

This article talks about Human tissue as property, and it goes into great detail. They argue on “who owns property?” and they support their argument with evidence in court cases. Even though, they never put in a definite this way or that answer, it was a useful article, that will help in researching farther into my paper.
The article says “For better or worse, we have irretrievably entered an age that requires examination of our understanding of the legal rights and relationships in the human body and the human cell.” This statement is a well written one. Everyone is different, and their needs to be a line that separates ownership and donation. If someone donates something, they do not own it anymore. It would be like giving a present to someone and then wanting to take it back, or take credit for how it is used. This article spoke about William Catalona versus Washington University and the debate on whether he could take the tissue, with consent of the donors, to his new job, and the courts ruled in favor of Washington University. Even though the patients had given permission for Catalona to take the tissue, the courts didn't allow it. They said it was property of Washington University. I think this is pretty shady. Catalona was doing the research on the tissue, and he talked with his patients and was given permission to continue the research elsewhere, and he should have been able to do that. What gave Washington State the ownership of the tissue? I understand it was donated to them, but it was donated for research under Dr. Catalona, so it should've stayed that way.